vesterberg.se

It is fascinating how you can move from a feeling of powerlessness and lack of ideas to a state of energy and fresh initiative in just a short time by focusing on others. It happened to me a while ago. I started to look to much into myself and pondered the difficulties and as a result doubt and fear rose. My own mind tricked me and the flow of creativity was blocked. I did not know what to do about a certain situation. Suddenly I realized what had happened. I started to think how I could be of service to the people involved and then ideas started to flow.

The change of feeling was so obvious that I had to stop for a while and reflect over it. What is the lesson here? Be aware of your own attention. Check where your attention is directed and make sure it is directed towards people. I believe that a prominent trait in a leader should that of being a servant to those you lead.

In a few days a PSL course will start in Stockholm with me as one of the participants. PSL means Problem Solving Leadership and this is what it’s all about.

For 34 years, Jerry Weinberg has continuously kept improving the Problem Solving Leadership workshop, which he invented together with his anthropologist wife Dani Weinberg back in 1974. The almost week-long (sunday to friday) workshop is about how to think and act clearly, creatively, and congruently – even in chaotic situations. Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby are co-hosting the PSL workshop with Jerry. Esther and Johanna are both internationally renowned consultants and writers; but most importantly for this workshop: they are the best facilitators there are for this setting. One thing should be stated early about PSL: there are no powerpoint slides, there is not even a projector. The PSL workshop is about simulations, observations, and reflections, while solving hard problems with others. This is multichannel communication. This is experiential learning.

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it! Jerry Weinberg wrote the book Introduction to General Systems Thinking and I know that he as well as the other leaders on this course are people that apply systems thinking.

I am back home again after yet another green world café. We might not have been a huge crowd, but for me to experience the connections and conversations that emerge among diverse people, young and old, businessmen and students, environmentalists and just “ordinary” people are so inspiring. As I have written before, diversity is really powerful. Facilitation dialogue is the most exciting (and challenging) thing I have done for a long time. If you haven’t heard of conversations like the World Café, read about it at theworldcafe.com.

On-line cafés

Afterwards a few of us discussed the possibilities to include people from other countries in the conversations through video-conferencing systems. Imagine discussing sustainability issues with people from Greenland, Malaysia or Borneo, or having “joint-cafés” happening at the same time at different places.

We need mirrors

We have ways of thinking and solving problems in Europe that we believe is right. Many people are not aware of that their way of thinking is just a way of thinking. Do you follow me? We have one perspective, but there are more. We try to be “objective”, but in a fact we have blind spots that become visible to us only through meeting people from other cultures. These people are gifts to us! This is an alternative way to look at immigrants. They are gifts, not problems. We are often so eager to export our thoughts and solutions. We have good ideas, yes, but do we know it all? People from other cultures are in a way like mirrors. Through conversation and friendship with them, we can see ourselves in new light and we change to the better.

On-line conversations

We have people with different ethnicity close by, in our own city, but wouldn’t it be a fascinating to utilize new technology to connect across cultures? You might read this and live in New Zealand, Kenya or Singapore. You are a gift to the Swedish culture and I am a gift to yours. Would you say yes to a cross-cultural conversation?

When I have spoken publicly I have often wondered about the dynamics of speaking to a crowd. Sometimes it is easy, like a brook flowing out from you and sometimes it is like chewing sawdust or sand. Sometimes you are able to catch the attention of the audience and sometimes you are very happy to have notes and you just want to finish your speech as soon as possible. The brook-experiences are great. It is like what you are saying is created afresh in that very moment and you say things you have not thought about before. An interested and participating audience “pulls” out a living message.

Some days ago I read an interesting article at the Pegasus site called “A whole approach to public speaking” by Carla Kimball that describes this phenomenon very nice. She talks about how we can grow in our public speaking abilities by  developing awareness when speaking. You can connect to the audience, seeing both yourself and the audience as a larger whole. She talks about establishing a relationship with the ones you are talking to and creating a shared space. What is being said is, in a way, created by both the speaker and the audience. One of the keys is to think how you can be of service. It is not about presenting your thing, but about being a servant.

I have recently experienced both being in the flow and chewing sand, so the explanation really came alive to me.